Johnny Cade, who are you?

[Masquerade]

I have hardly written any Johnny. I can't do the "Dallas and Johnny somehow miraculously survived" thing, and most of my stories are after the book, or just plain don't involve Johnny.
When I think about it, the weird thing to me is how Johnny was 16, only about a year younger than half of the rest of the gang, and yet, he seems to be so much younger than them. By "them" I mean Soda, Steve and Dallas. Why is it that Johnny's character was so...I don't know, petted over by everyone, and that includes fans?
Anybody else think of him as way younger than those guys?

[latch22]

I don't think that he considers himself worthy of having a better shot at life. Society tells him he's nothing; his peers tell him he's nothing or just ignore him, excluding the gang; his own parents act like he's nothing. It's what he's used to. That's just the way that it'salways been.

Johnny himself can't find enough motivation to leave, because I'm sure he feels that he deserves the treatment that he's getting--or that they must be right, somehow, because they're his parents and he loves them. He can justify it in his mind.

Or he glosses over it because he wants them to care, and he's hoping that they will, which goes along with the lost puppy thing... but I'd stick with the first one.

Cheers!

[zevie]

Hmm... I have a lot of thoughts on Johnny. I think I understand some of what he does, although we don't get insight into his thoughts, so I may be completely off.

The deal with Johnny, for me at least, is that he's actually a good deal stronger in some ways than someone like Dallas. Dally survived somewhat the same sh*t conditions, but he sacrificed a lot of his humanity in the process. Johnny doesn't. He has hope. Fighting back isn't the only way to be strong, especially when it gets you nowhere. But, it's not the common reaction for these guys. I figure, the gang, being used to being ignored and so more likely to notice it, kinda sees this hope in him and wants to keep it there. Turning him into their pet marks him as a kind of child figure, and it counters a lot of their experiences, having to grow up too fast and take in the harshness of reality. Pony says Johnny would have run away if it weren't for the gang, so it's not that he's incapable of action at all. I think he makes a conscious choice to stay.

I haven't seen him done well that often, which makes me wonder if S.E. Hinton did too good a job on him, lol. I would have thought that all the confusion over his character would create a huge variety of background stories, but he's the type to be marginalized, even by writers I guess (myself included, lol, no guilt intended here).

Just my thoughts... I really like his character, but I haven't done anything on him at all, even in group fics. Maybe there should be a rumble on this - sounds like it'd be a good challenge.

[jrc]

Johnny will always remind me of my brother. We came from a good home, so not in the abuse victim kind of way, but my brother has been sick for, golly, four years. He's high strung in personality, but babied because he was far from able to take care of himself. I always pictured Johnny like that, feeling resentful for being babied, but loving it at the same time. That and my brother is really small for his age, and at sixteen, people mistook us as twins, which I'm sure he appreciated, me being three years younger.

But, Johnny's insightful enough to not fight back. I think he does it consciously, as zevie said. I always thought he was afraid of becoming like his father, and the struggle of not fighting back was probably hard, but neccissary.(sp?) He didn't bat an eye when his father hit him with a 2x4(or something) because he was amazing self control. He has a rare personality, which makes him difficult to understand--instead of letting the enviroment make him the very thing he fears, he has to go in the other direction to balance it out.

He's not a whimp, he merely took the better of two roads: prevent himself from getting hurt, while killing himself in the battle, or preventing others from experiencing the pain that has plaged him. He's but a martyr of his own cause.

In my opinion.

[EmilineHarris]

marsonfire said:

But I definitely think the big following is Johnny = woobie.

Heh. This made me laugh. Johnny is the perfect woobie.

[BlindedxxFalcon]

Johnny needs a hug.

[theonceler]

I've never been a big fan of Johnny, even though he's so important to the story. I just have never understood him enough to really like him. But a friend of mine, who does sort of get Johnny said,

"Johnny knew that fighting back wouldn't do any good, probably just piss off his dad. He was probably afraid that using violence would turn him into that, you know. Scared that if he got to hitting he might like it. "

I think that makes sense. I like him a little more now.

[Ryker]

Argh! Stupid internet went out while I made the post, now I gotta do it again. I can't be bothered, ugh.

I think the main reason girls are drawn to Johnny, is because their maternal instincts kick in and they want to save him from his "wicked parents." I know, it was one of the reasons he used to be my fave character. Though he's not anymore, I can't find myself disliking him. I think I feel too much for him.

Johnny was def tough, IMO. He could just lay there and take a whipping by a 2X4 without making a sound. Despite what he was going through, he hadn't turned into a sociopath like Dally or become extremely reclusive. Like jrc pointed out, he had amazing self control. Though, he probably had a lot of hidden anger and resentment. After all he does talk about killing himself.

You know, his old man was probably abused his father. Most people who were abused as kids, abuse their own children. Sad.

[Maddiecake]

I've loved Johnny since my sixth grade class had to read the book and watch the movie. At first I was attracted to him because he was shy, and I could completely understand that. Also, it may have been something to do with his height... as an eleven year old, I was very short.

Anyway, I still like him a lot, but now it's more because I somehow enjoy putting him through even harsher situations than what he already has. Maybe it's just because I know that somehow he can handle it... or completely crack (I have driven him crazy on one occasion), or it might just be because I have something wrong with me. Lately, I've been thinking of driving several characters from different fandoms insane.

But I agree with everyone who said that girls are attracted to him because of their "maternal instincts".

[TehNetteSpeaks]

I've been thinking about Johnny, you know- trying to sort out his mind, putting myself in his situation.

On one side- Johnny doesn't fight back, he stands there and takes it because A.) He feels he deserves it. What with everyone putting him down and all. However, I don't think this is the case. It just doesn't seem like Johnny as I see him, to succumb to a beating because others say he should get it- I feel like he knows he shouldn't be getting beat but he allows it anyway.

Why would he allow it if he knows it's wrong? B.) He's taking the beating so someone else won't have to. A younger sibling was never mentioned, so that leads me to believe he's protecting his mother. Johnny loves his parents, and despite what they put him through, he stays loyal to them. In his eyes, if he's taking the beating- his mom is out of harm's way. This could be part of why he never runs away. If Johnny's not there for his father to hit, that leaves his mom an open target. He's a loyal boy and he won't fight back if he's keeping someone else safe. A reasonable answer in my eyes, but if he doesn't think his mom will be abused- there's another choice.

C.) He wishes to become nothing like his alcoholic, abusive father. This also seems reasonable to me. Why would he fight fire with fire? To him, it doesn't seem right.
I think that's why Johnny stays and doesn't run away. He has family in the gang too, which could be the reason for his loyalty. You may not always agree with them, but you stay with your family, don't you?
He may not be very smart but he's still in school. Why? He's never been out of their neighborhood, so if he ran away he wouldn't know where to go. But when he graduates he can get away from his parents and he won't have to deal with the physical and verbal abuse. I think Johnny feels like this is his only option, staying where he is and putting up with the crap because he has hope, hope that one day he'll be able to make it out.

Until I typed B, I thought C. was the most reasonable. Now I'm not sure. Pony says Johnny is smart and good at understanding things, so I think Johnny would be able see the reason of staying in school even if he's not very good at it, but if he did feel like he was protecting his mom (even if that was not really the case) which one would he be staying for?

[TehNetteSpeaks]

Alright, so maybe it wasn't so much out of love for his mother but still taking the majority of the beating so someone else wouldn't have to.

Johnny did kill a guy to save his friend and ended up killing himself to save a couple kids from burning in a fire. I think it's logical he would take the heavier of the hits so the woman who gave birth to him wouldn't have it so bad if she was going to get hit anyway.

Another thought just popped into my head but I don't think I'm wording it right- Is it possible Johnny feels guilty and that's why he takes all the beatings? Because his parents may abuse him, but at least he has parents?

As for him reaching out to the gang and rejecting his mother- I'd say maybe deep down inside he felt guilty leaving his mom to his dad's mercy, it could make sense- because he'd be expecting his mom to come in and verbally abuse him and he's done dealing with her issues.
He could also be angry if he realized his mom could've left his dad all those years but she didn't, which was going to lead me to another question- If she was being abused, why didn't she leave? She had the option to get out, it's not like she cares too much about her son's welfare.

There are so many unexplained things about Johnny's life that I wish I knew.

[saintmilly]

Ever since I read the book last year, I've felt that Johnny was the strongest and toughest character, right next to Darry.

I agree with everything zevie said about him still having hope in such a shitty condition that his life was in. That's something he wanted to demonstrate to Pony, the whole "Stay gold" and letter to him proved that he really wanted Pony to understand what he himself fought for.

Maybe I'm looking too much into this.

[cassasaur]

Johnny...Johnny's so intersting. HE's mixed in with all these huge characters, with toms of personality, so he's almost left behind by a lot of people. Johnny, I think, hates living where he is. He was never outside his neighborhood, and wanted to leave. He fought in rumbles, but secretly, I don't think he enjoyed it. I agree, he thought it would turn into his father. I can just picture Johnny, if he lived, bolting out of Tulsa as soon as he graduated. Probably before then. He didn't do great in school, and would have dropped out and left if he knew how to drive, or because he knew how much it would probably hurt Ponyboy.